{"id":174556,"date":"2024-12-19T11:27:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T10:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=174556"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:38","slug":"frontrunners-of-education-innovation-and-sustainability-to-end-on-1-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/12\/19\/frontrunners-of-education-innovation-and-sustainability-to-end-on-1-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontrunners of education innovation and sustainability to end on 1 January"},"content":{"rendered":"

From January 2025, sustainability, impact education, and education innovation will take a back seat at Erasmus University. Several key programmes from the strategic plan will either cease to exist or continue in a slimmed-down form.<\/p>\n

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In 2023, the university organised various sustainability dialogues and declared a climate state of emergency. The organiser of the dialogues, Design Impact Transition, will cease operations as of 31 December.<\/span><\/p>

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The programmes, including the Design Impact Transition platform, Erasmus X, Impact at the Core, and the sustainability programme, are part of the Strategy 2024 initiative \u2013 temporary projects that were scheduled to conclude at the end of 2024. Many staff contracts were therefore set to expire on 31 December. However, staff had hoped that the programmes would receive permanent funding beyond the strategic period, as the themes remain central to the university\u2019s new strategy.<\/p>\n

This turned out to be difficult, as budget cuts have also affected the strategy, and nearly half of the strategic budget for 2025 is already tied up in ongoing initiatives such as collaboration with Erasmus MC and TU Delft (\u2018convergence\u2019) and UNIC, a network of universities. The new strategy has yet to be finalised and is expected to be presented no earlier than September 2025. This creates a gap of nearly a year, during which many talented individuals will leave, sources in those programmes worry.<\/p>\n

Difficult choices<\/h2>

Arwin van Buuren, Strategic Dean for Impact & Engagement, is tasked with continuing as much as possible during the interim period, with reduced funding. \u201cOf course, we all hoped that additional resources would become available. But due to the budget cuts, there will be less funding for 2025. Choices have been made that are truly painful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018The idea behind strategic projects is that they eventually become structurally embedded in the organisation, I feel not all project leaders focused enough on achieving that\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Arwin van Buuren, Strategic Dean for Impact & Engagement, is tasked with continuing as much as possible during the interim period, with reduced funding. \u201cOf course, we all hoped that additional resources would become available. But due to the budget cuts, there will be less funding for 2025. Choices have been made that are truly painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, Van Buuren remains optimistic. \u201cNot everything that is ending now is completely lost. You have to consider that, four years ago, we were debating whether impact should even be the main pillar of the strategy. Now, no one doubts it. Yes, people are leaving in this area, but many others within the university have embraced impact and are intrinsically motivated to continue working on it. The same applies to sustainability. That\u2019s exactly the purpose of strategic investments: to initiate change. By definition, they\u2019re temporary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some staff involved in strategic projects are dissatisfied with the unexpected termination of the programmes, but Van Buuren believes this sentiment is not entirely justified. \u201cIt was always clear that these programmes would end on 31 December. The idea behind strategic projects is that they eventually become structurally embedded in the organisation. I feel not all project leaders focused enough on achieving that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convergence continues<\/h2>

Some strategic projects will continue however. The convergence project, which explores deeper collaboration between TU Delft, Erasmus MC, and Erasmus University, will proceed at full capacity, as will UNIC, a network of universities led by EUR. Erasmus Verbindt, a platform linking societal organisations with education to provide practical case studies, will continue in a reduced form, along with several other projects.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t